This readalike is in response to a customer's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids. You can browse the book matches here.

Enjoying your school year so far? Read these school-related titles dealing with teen drama, teen sorrows, and even, teen horror.

Antisocial by Jillian Blake
One by one, students' phones are hacked at Alexandria Prep. What was thought to be a joke escalates quickly as private information and secrets are revealed, leaving everyone exposed, and Anna Soler on the hunt for the hacker. (catalog summary)

When Batman was first written, one name was attached to his creation: Bob Kane. Bob's name appeared in every Batman comic, without any other creator noted. However, this is not true. Bill Finger, a Depression-era, New York resident, had a lot to do with it, too. In fact, according to Marc Tyler Nobleman's breakthrough biography Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, Bill was responsible for the majority of the Batman persona we see today.

Dr. Daniel Wallace is a human factors engineer for the U.S. Navy. He is active in teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to children through demonstrations and teaches a science camp for a week every year at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Colonial Beach, VA. He is now in his 14th year as a member of the Westmoreland County Public School Board. He is also a musician, playing violin in the praise and worship band at his church.

We are very happy that he has agreed to share some of his favorite books with CRRL readers. To begin, here are favorites from his childhood:

This readalike is in response to a customer's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids. You can browse other book matches here.

Nothing ever happens in the town of Long Thorpe . . . that is until sixteen-year-old Summer Robinson disappears without a trace. No family or police investigation can track her down. Spending months in the cellar of her kidnapper with several other girls, Summer learns of Colin’s abusive past, and his thoughts of his victims were his family—his perfect, pure flowers. But flowers can’t survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out. (summary from Goodreads)

If you like scary, realistic books involving kidnapping and other crime, check out the following books:

Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee by Mary G. Thompson
Amy and her cousin Dee were kidnapped six years ago. When Amy finds her way home, she's desperate to protect the ones she loves at any cost. (catalog summary)

Back Before Dark by Tim Shoemaker
When Gordy is abducted in the park, his cousin Cooper will do anything to rescue him and although Hiro and Lunk fear that Cooper will get himself in trouble, too, they join the race against the clock to save their friend. (catalog summary)

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas
When her father dies, Tessa is pulled back to the small Pennsylvania town where her life came apart when her father was sent to prison, her mother went to pieces, and her beloved older sister ran away, and where her testimony and that of her now-estranged friend Callie sent a serial killer to death row—a serial killer who may be getting a new trial as long buried secrets come to light. (catalog summary)

In Jewish lore, there is the legend of the golem, a being composed of earth and given life with ritual prayer. It is a protector that might be brought forth for the darkest days. And, surely World War II must be counted among those days.

Dark Horse Comics’ Breath of Bones: A Tale of the Golem imagines a scenario where a poor Jewish village, whose fighting-age men have gone to war, has mercy on a downed British pilot, even knowing that his presence will endanger them all.

This readalike is in response to a customer's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids. You can browse the book matches here.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep . . . They even built humans. Emigrees to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in. Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results. (catalog summary)

Blade Runner 2049 is an upcoming American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green. The sequel to Blade Runner (1982), it stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, who reprises his role as Rick Deckard, with Ana de Armas, Mackenzie Davis, Sylvia Hoeks, Lennie James, Carla Juri, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, and Jared Leto in supporting roles. A new Blade Runner, LAPD Officer K, discovers a dark secret that could bring an end to humanity. The discovery leads him to Rick Deckard, a former blade runner who disappeared thirty years ago. The film will be released globally October 6, 2017, in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D.¹See the trailer below.

Awkward, by Svetlana Chmakova, is a graphic novel that delves into the world of middle school and all of the ups and downs that come with it.

For Penelope, who also goes by Peppi, surviving school means following a set of very simple and very straightforward rules. Some of these rules, such as “seek out groups with similar interests and join them,” are not so hard to follow. As an artist, she found her niche within the art club. Some of her rules, particularly “don’t get noticed by the mean kids,” are turning out to be much more difficult to follow—even on the very first day!

This readalike is in response to a customer's book-match request. If you would like personalized reading recommendations, fill out the book-match form and a librarian will email suggested titles to you. Available for adults, teens, and kids. You can browse the book matches here.

Sometimes it’s better to not know what the future holds. King Acrisius asks the oracle serpent how he will die. The answer frightens him: by his grandson’s hand. But he has no grandson. His daughter Danaë isn’t even married…. And now, the king is determined she never will be.

He builds an astonishingly tall tower just for her. Trusting him as she does, she goes to the top to see the view, only to find she is imprisoned. That’s the plan her father had for her. To let her grow old without ever knowing the comfort of a husband or a child. He thought he was being merciful—after all, he didn’t kill her, did he? She could have anything she wanted up there, as long as she stayed up there and away from everyone else.